Auctions Increase
Sotheby's and Christie's raised $53 million and 28.7 million pounds ($47.1 million) at wine sales in the first half of 2011, increases of 49.3 percent and 120 percent respectively. Acker took $54.8 million, up 10.4 percent. The total for all three, about $155 million, compares with $106 million a year ago.
Growth for all three companies was primarily driven by sales in Hong Kong. Sotheby's HK$96.8-million "Ultimate Cellar" auction on April 2 was the New York-based company's 15th straight 100 percent-successful "white glove" sale in the region.
Hong Kong
"The market has continued to grow because we've had some unbelievable collections to sell in Hong Kong," Serena Sutcliffe, Sotheby's worldwide head of wine, said in an interview. "Some individual prices have come down. Lafite has leveled out. It couldn't continue to rise with every sale. Now buyers are looking at other chateaux and they've begun to close the gap."
In October 2010, a 12-bottle case of Lafite's 1982 vintage, sourced directly from the chateau, sold for HK$1 million ($128,000) at Sotheby's Hong Kong. The wine fetched HK$605,000 a case at the same auction venue in April.
By contrast, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild '82 fetched HK$169,400 a case at Sotheby's Andrew Lloyd Webber Wine Collection auction in January. The price in Hong Kong climbed to HK$217,800 in April at Sotheby's "Ultimate Cellar" sale.
John Kapon, chief executive of Acker, believes the problematic 2010 futures campaign will drive Chinese buyers back into the auction market.
"Bordeaux has scared off Asia just as it was coming to the table," Kapon said in an interview. "People from that region will notice they can get three bottles of 1995 Bordeaux for the price of one bottle of 2010. They don't like paying for things and having to wait years to get them."
Record Bottle
The French collector and restaurateur Christian Vanneque had to wait six months to take possession of a bottle of 1811 Chateau d'Yquem for which he paid a record 75,000 pounds ($122,070).